"Jesus stopped ..." (Matthew 20.32; Mark 10.32). Those words always give me pause each time I read them.
I've been thinking of my strengths and weaknesses as a pastor lately, so what follows is an extended thought about one of my personal weaknesses.
I tend to work on a pace that borders on insane. I walk fast between places. I focus on projects with a red-hot intensity. And I typically don't view interruptions favorably. Sure, I don't say anything, but internally such interruptions create chaos for a moment.
So in those words, I'm given a spiritual pause. Literally.
That's because, in those two little words -- "Jesus stopped" -- there's a spiritual discipline particularly important for pastors. It's the spiritual practice of interrupt-ability: The ability to be interrupted for the Kingdom's work.
Basically, interruptibility is a form of welcome and hospitality. It's a way of making room for others. This space we create is less a physical space than a temporal space, making room in your To Do list, making space so we can slow down and pay attention to others. In this, interruptibility is a form of slowing down.
Have you ever noticed that God walks a lot in the Bible? When I imagine God's pace in walking, the word slowly comes to mind. Walking slowly is walking love. It's an inner, spiritual speed. It's a different kind of speed from our regular technological speed. It's slow -- but at the same time it's the lord over all other speeds, precisely because it's the sped of love.
Interruptibility is a sign that we're walking in love.
You see this a lot in Jesus' life and ministry. People frequently call from the margins and Jesus allows himself to be interrupted, to allow the "least of these" to interrupt what he is doing. And by doing so Jesus makes room for others.
But interruptibility isn't just a form of hospitality, it's also a form of humility. We tend to become uninterruptible when we think our agenda is the most important. Thus, when you allow someone to interrupt you you are implicitly setting their agenda ahead of your own. You're practicing what Paul taught: "In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others" (Philippians 2.3). Paul isn't talking about self-esteem here. He's talking about priorities. Put other people's interests on your To Do list. Be interruptible.
Because interruptibility is a form of humility it can function as a form of subversion in hierarchies, particularly in workplace interactions. Most workplaces are hierarchical, with superiors on top and subordinates down below. Agendas grow more important as you move upward. Thus, interruptibility flows downward. A superior can interrupt a subordinate but a subordinate shouldn't interrupt a superior. And when a superior interrupts a subordinate the assumption is that the agenda they are about to interrupt with is "more important" than what the subordinate is currently working on.
I'm not saying that superior-to-subordinate interruption is sinful. It's necessary to get the job done. My main concern has to do with how life in hierarchies can form bad habits and can be dehumanizing. Patterns of interruptibility in hierarchies need to be monitored if we'd like to be people of grace and welcome, inside and outside the office. Too often, the patterns of interruptibility created by workplace hierarchies create habits and self-concepts that get imported into other settings, the church in particular.
In my Introduction to Christian Ministries class, I often use the 1973 study John Darley and Daniel Batson entitled From Jerusalem to Jericho: A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior. The Jerusalem to Jericho study was effectively a modern-day reenactment of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We all know the biblical story. So how do you think pastors know the lesson?
Well ...
Here's how the 1973 study worked. The study involved seminarians preparing for the ministry. The seminarians were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group was asked to prepare a sermon on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The second group prepared a sermon on a non-helping subject. The seminarians were then scheduled to deliver this sermon at an appointed time and place.
Upon arriving at the designated place, the seminarians were told that the location of the sermon had been changed at the last minute and that they were to go to a new location. At this point the seminarians were randomly assigned again, this time into three groups. A third of the seminarians were put under strong time pressure, told that they needed to get to the new venue in a hurry (the high hurry condition). The second third was put under moderate time pressure (the intermediate hurry condition). And finally, the final third was told that they could take their time getting to the new venue (the low hurry condition). After this hurry manipulation the seminarians were pointed to the exit and directed to proceed to the next venue.
Along the route (an alleyway) to the next venue Darley and Batson had placed a person who showed signs of distress. Specifically, they were sitting slumped against the wall, head down and eyes closed. As the subject passed, the confederate would cough twice and groan. Basically, they showed signs of abdominal pain. As the seminarians passed the key variable was recorded: Would they stop to check on the groaning person?
So who stopped to help? There were three main predictions that were being tested:
#1: Given that these were individuals bound for Christian ministry most everyone would stop.Overall, the results revealed that the single biggest factor in helping was the hurry manipulation. The relevant statistic from the study was (the percentage who stopped):
#2: Those who were thinking about the Parable of the Good Samaritan would stop. Again, as they were walking to the new venue 50% of the seminarians had a sermon about the Good Samaritan in their heads. Thus, conceivably, those thinking about Jesus's parable would be more likely to recognize the situation: "Hmmm. This situation looks strangely familiar ..."
#3: Those who were less hurried would stop. That is, the biggest predictor of helping would be the hurry-manipulation. Those who have the time will help. Those who don't have the time won't.
The Low Hurry Condition: 63% offered aidAnd, incidentally, some seminarians in the high hurry condition literally stepped over the groaning person on the way to deliver their sermon on the Good Samaritan.
The High Hurry Condition: 10% offered aid
I always relate to my Ministry class that this study makes clear this acute observation: Most of us pursue spirituality as a hobby. That is, Life with God is pursued as a leisure activity. Why do I say this? Well, hobbies and leisure activities are what we pursue when we have free, expendable time our our hands. But when we have "stuff to do", we tend to place our hobbies to the side. They aren't allowed to interfere with our urgent agenda. If so, then the Jerusalem to Jericho study suggests that helping others, for many -- even pastors -- is often a hobby. It's something to do on weekends, when you have some spare time. This is a penetrating diagnosis. Too many Christians treat altruism as a hobby rather than as a central and urgent feature of their life.
This is why I insist among would-be pastors that the best church ministries are those in which leadership culture is "flattened": Where pastors interact with egalitarianism. If we work humanly, humanely, with respect, and the ability to be interrupted, we're doing Kingdom work.
The difference between how a person treats the powerless versus the powerful is as good a measure of human character as I know. And this is especially true of ministers.
Becoming interruptible is Kingdom work.
All this reminds me of two stories from Mark 10: "People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these'. ... Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means 'son of Timaeus'), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!' Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him'".
Jesus stopped ... and this is Kingdom work.